Junya Sanurjai. Detection and differentiation of vibrio cholerae O1, O139 and non-O1 isolates in seafood samples by touch down multiplex polymerase chain reaction . Master's Degree(Infectious Diseases and Epidemiology). Mahidol University. : Mahidol University, 2004.
Detection and differentiation of vibrio cholerae O1, O139 and non-O1 isolates in seafood samples by touch down multiplex polymerase chain reaction
Abstract:
The advent of genetics-based identification methods for pathogenic Vibrio cholerae O1 and
O139 has great advantages in speed and specificity. The objectives of this study were to detect the
degree of contamination in 330 seafood samples, using standard culture method, to detect the
presence of V. cholerae O1, O139 and non-O1 as well as differentiating between the V. cholerae
isolates in seafood samples by the previously designed touch down multiplex polymerase chain
reaction (TM-PCR) method. All seafood samples collected from the small preprocessing stations
and local markets in Samutsakorn Province and Bangkok, from October 2002 to March 2004.
The detection limits of V. cholerae O1, O139 and non-O1 in artificially seeded seafood
homogenates were 7.3×106 Colony Forming Units (CFU)/g (7.3×103 CFU per reaction), 1.8×106
CFU/g (1.8×103 CFU per reaction) and 6.6×106 CFU/g (6.6×103 CFU per reaction), respectively.
Of the 330 seafood samples detected for contamination of V. cholerae O1, O139 and non-O1 by
standard culture method, 54.8% (181/330) were positive for V. cholerae both O1 and/or non-O1.
Among these positive samples, 5.8% (19/330) were positive for V. cholerae O1 and 53.6%
(177/330) were positive for V. cholerae non-O1. V. cholerae O139 was not detected in all samples
by either method. The detection rate of V. cholerae in enrichment cultures (173/330, 52.4%) was
significantly higher than that in direct cultures (58/330, 17.6%) (p<0.05). No amplicons of
V. cholerae (O1, O139 and non-O1) were directly detected in 330 homogenized seafood enriched
cultures stored at -20°C for more than 6 months by TM-PCR. However, 3 out of 7 freshly prepared
enrichment positive cultures were positive for V. cholerae non-O1 (588 bp). In addition, all 326
V. cholerae non-O1 and 22 V. cholerae O1 isolates obtained by conventional culture method
produced the same results when tested by TM-PCR. For the assessment of microbiological quality
of seafood samples according to Food and Environmental Hygiene criteria, it was found that 54.8%
(181/330) of the seafood samples were contaminated for V. cholerae O1 and/or non-O1 at the
unacceptable level. The results of this study suggest that TM-PCR method might be able to detect
and differentiate V. cholerae O1, O139 and non-O1 in enriched culture samples after overnight
incubation. However, it was found that TM-PCR was not functional with enriched culture samples
that were frozen and stored. Moreover, the study concludes that TM-PCR method is capable of
differentiating V. cholerae isolates in seafood.